Dave,
There is a new kind of bamboo product available. It's called "strand woven" bamboo and it has several advantages over VLAM. First, it's more dimensionally stable than verticle bamboo. It cuts better accross grain with less burrs. It likely has less resonance due to the weave, may be even denser at 2850.
And now.....are you ready?....it comes in a beautiful high contrast "Tiger" grain. Do the research and source a supplier/vendor. This will give the Sierra a 3rd look with an eye popping option. Let me know what you find out Dave. I'm assuming Dave is one of the engineers at Ascend.